


Peppermint Mocha, Extra Syrup

by faeryn



Series: Wrong coffee 'verse [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Destiel - Freeform, Fluff, M/M, Wrong Coffee AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-05
Updated: 2014-02-05
Packaged: 2018-01-11 06:29:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1169790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faeryn/pseuds/faeryn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written based on a Tumblr post that suggested one of them pick up the wrong coffee, it stuck in my head so I had to scratch out this little ficlet :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Peppermint Mocha, Extra Syrup

**Author's Note:**

> HAHAHA I am so sorry everyone I couldn't help myself I had to write this! I don't know, I might do a follow-up chapter (or, potentially, a series of itty bitty ficlets exploring this storyline whenever I'm bored and need something fluffy to scribble out) covering the actual date and whatnot but idk...

“Morning Cas!” Hael greeted her favourite customer cheerfully then leaned over the counter to straighten his perpetually backwards tie.

“Hael, it’s fine, my students think it’s funny,” he grinned, standing still while she tucked his collar down.

“Castiel you’re a cute guy, you should at least  _try_  to look respectable,” she winked drawing back.

“Ah- _hem_ ,” the man waiting behind Castiel cleared his throat loudly. “If you two could flirt another time, I’m in a hurry,” he snapped, green eyes cold as he looked at the expensive watch on his wrist and tapped his Italian leather shoe impatiently.

“Then by all means, please go ahead,” Cas stepped back pleasantly and waited while the man ordered, knowing Hael would already have his in hand anyway.

“Cas and Dean!” she called out brightly a few minutes later and, before Castiel could comment, the other man – Dean, he assumed – had grabbed his take-out cup and left the coffee shop in a flurry of movement.

Castiel sighed and lifted his cup at Hael pleasantly as she served the next customer then took a sip and grimaced. It was thick, bitter and definitely  _not_  his peppermint mocha. A sly smile crossed his face as he realised the hurried man would probably not realise he’d gotten Castiel’s sickeningly sweet beverage until he got to his desk. Thinking about his disgusted face as he dropped it in the trash entertained Cas all the way to the university; he drank the coffee, too, a little bit from spite.

 

Castiel and the hurried man – Dean, he reminded himself – almost ran into each other outside the coffee shop the following morning and Cas stepped back to let him through the door first as they joined the queue of people.

“I think I took your drink in my hurry yesterday,” Dean said, his words apologetic but his manner and tone more irritated than anything else, “what  _is_  that vile drink?”

“Peppermint mocha with extra syrup,” Castiel replied cheerfully, his thumbs in the pockets of his dark blue waistcoat looking every bit the slightly crazy professor today, “yours was delightful, I could really  _taste_  the bitterness.” He grinned widely but Dean scowled and turned to Hael, barking his order and paying her rudely. Castiel frowned, there was no need for that, but Hael just smiled and rolled her eyes.

“It’s okay,” she said confidentially as Dean moved away to wait for his drink while Castiel paid for his own, “he’s always like that in the mornings but he sometimes comes in on weekends and he’s actually really sweet. I think his job’s just really stressful,” she smiled and handed Castiel his change, which he dropped in the tip jar as usual.

“Cas and Dean!” Hael called out moments later and, again, Dean grabbed the cup nearest to him and left the cafe in a whirl while Castiel took a moment to sip his drink again and grimaced for the second day in a row. That man was going to  _have_ to learn some patience, at least long enough to check he had the right drink. Cas dumped four sugars into the coffee and tried it again – well now it was bearable, at least - and headed off to work.

 

“Peppermint Mocha, or whatever,” he heard a familiar voice order two days later, two more days they had ended up with the wrong drinks, and he grinned.

“Grown on you, has it?” he sidled up to Dean and the man whirled around to glare at him.

“No, just hoping that if I order your shitty drink I might actually get my own for once,” he growled and Castiel laughed, his nose wrinkling with his smile.

“If you took five extra seconds to read the name on the cup before you grabbed it,  _Dean_ , you’d notice you were picking mine up every day. If I didn’t know better I’d think you were doing it on purpose,” he winked.

It didn’t escape his notice that a light flush crept up the back of Dean’s neck even as he frowned angrily and muttered “not likely,” under his breath.

“Cas’ drink is more expensive too,” Hael chimed in, “so you’re getting the better end of the deal,” she grinned. “Cas and Dean,” she slid the paper cups across to them and they both picked them up, Dean slowly lifting his to his lips and taking a tentative sip. His lips turned down in a grimace and he held it out to Castiel.

“Think this is yours,” he grumbled and Castiel happily passed over the double-shot latte Dean had wanted.

“See you tomorrow,” Castiel smiled, sauntering from the cafe in his usual easy manner leaving Dean to stand at the counter blinking confusedly.

“Yeah, he has that effect on people,” Hael sighed wistfully and Dean’s focus suddenly snapped back to the present.

“Whatever,” he snarled and left hurriedly, now needing to make up for lost time.

 

Dean resolutely avoided the coffee shop the following day, to Castiel’s disappointment and Hael’s great amusement, though the professor lingered all morning since he didn’t have any classes until the afternoon.

“Cas you’re acting like a schoolboy with a crush,” Hael observed as Castiel leaned against the counter, thumbs tucked into the red waistcoat he’d chosen that morning.

His eyes slid to the side to look at her and he grinned cheekily. “He’s cute, though, isn’t he?”

“Didn’t think he’d be your type though,” she laughed, “all designer suits and expensive taste. Bet you’d have to fork out a small fortune to take  _him_  out for dinner.”

Castiel frowned thoughtfully and shook his head. “No, I feel like he’s one of those who just does what’s expected of him, I bet he comes in here in jeans at the weekend, right?”

“Well... Yeah, but they’re  _expensive_  jeans, Cas.”

“Then maybe he can take  _me_  out,” Castiel suggested, waggling his eyebrows, “I can totally be the girl for a change,” he laughed. Hael laughed with him and shook her head at his optimism.

 

When Castiel pushed the door open at just after opening time the following day Hael wasn’t surprised, though she did cock an eyebrow at him and say “really?” Castiel shot her a grin and handed over the money for his coffee then settled down in a corner to mark essays. He’d have to do them this weekend either way, he might as well do them here where there was good coffee and the potential to spy out the cute guy he had totally  _not_  been crushing on all week.

About three hours later he was groaning and pressing the heels of his hands to his eyes in despair, his other task forgotten as he dug through his students work and wondered how he was going to get half of them to pass. A loud thud on the table in front of him startled him into movement and he almost leaped out of his seat.

“Oh calm down,” a gruff voice said and, to his surprise, Dean sat down in the chair on the other side of the table, lifting a mug to his lips and blowing on the steaming coffee before taking a careful sip and hissing as it burned his tongue anyway.

“Hello, Dean,” Castiel said carefully, eyeing the coffee Dean had put down before him. It looked like his drink, but he couldn’t be sure, though it would be weird for Dean to order  _two_ drinks...

“You looked like you could use a pick-me-up, and I owed you for all the shitty expensive coffee I’ve drunk this week,” Dean explained, not looking at Castiel.

Cas laughed, picking up the drink and taking a deep whiff of the chocolate-mint fragrance and sighing happily. He hadn’t minded Dean’s strong coffee too much, though his students had laughed at how wired he’d been all week since he wasn’t used to that much caffeine, but there was definitely something to be said for the sweetness of his own personal choice. “Thanks, I appreciate it. You didn’t have to, but I appreciate it.”

“So, what’s up?” Dean sounded casual and Castiel frowned, tilting his head to one side in confusion.

“I... don’t know, the sky I guess?” He wasn’t sure what Dean was asking him, they weren’t exactly buddies so his question made no sense.

“I mean why the long face,” Dean puffed out his cheeks in annoyance.

“Oh... Oh! Right, just marking essays. I do my best but some of these kids... They just don’t get it, and that can be quite frustrating.” He picked up one that Dean could see had a lot of red pen on it. “This student is very sweet, but she uses _text speak_  in her essays, I mean who does that?!” He gathered another one and frowned at it. “This boy has obviously just copied and pasted an article from the internet without even checking the source – what’s worse is the article is one  _I_ wrote and I know it word-for-word...” He sighed in exasperation.

“Sounds rough,” Dean said, sipping his coffee.

“It’s fine, it’s always the same, I just don’t understand why kids choose to take Theology at all if they have no interest, it’s such a niche subject and only really leads to positions in organised religion or teaching... And most of my kids this year don’t seem like the types.”

“You teach Theology?”

“Yeah, well it was that or – you know – clergy,” Castiel made a face, “and no matter how much my folks would have liked that I wasn’t interested.”

Dean laughed, finally looking at Cas and regarding him steadily. Today he was wearing his usual dark blue slacks with a matching waistcoat and a white button down with the sleeves rolled up. His left hand was stained with red ink and he had a smudge of it on the corner of his mouth where he had chewed his pen in exasperation. He looked back at Dean with that confused head tilt again as he snorted into his coffee, trying to stifle his laughter.

“I can’t imagine you in church,” he chuckled finally.

“I go to church every week, Dean,” Castiel said seriously.

“Y-you do?” Dean spluttered.

Now it was Cas’ turn to laugh, his face crinkling again in a way that implied he laughed often enough for his face to have permanent creases where he scrunched up his features. It was pretty cute, Dean definitely did  _not_  think, looking away deliberately.

“Did you just think I had a really girly name, Dean? Cas is short for Castiel, I’m named after an angel and my parents are very religious.”

Dean groaned and shifted as if he wanted to get up and leave, but when Castiel’s face fell slightly he couldn’t help but stay. He bit back his remark about Bible thumpers and stayed silent.

“There’s nothing wrong with having faith, Dean, but don’t worry. I’m not as... invested in the Christian doctrine as my family would like me to be. In fact, I prefer to focus on other theological areas in my syllabus whenever possible, they’re far more interesting.”

“Doesn’t matter to me,” Dean said gruffly, trying to maintain his air of disinterest. Hael was eavesdropping nearby under the guise of wiping tables and she stifled a giggle.

Castiel shrugged and shuffled some of his papers together. “So what do you do that has you all hot and bothered at six-thirty every morning?” he asked Dean, taking a moment to look at the difference in his dress now he was – supposedly – casual. Hael was right, his jeans were obviously expensive as were his boots but coupled with the worn Black Sabbath t-shirt he was wearing he looked... well...  _normal_. If he hadn’t been wearing his expensive glitzy watch Cas might have mistaken him for one of the older students at the university, even.

“Director of Sales & Marketing,” Dean didn’t sound all that happy about it, “and it’s a shitty job to be honest. Pays well enough, don’t get me wrong, but it’s all stress, all the time.” He shrugged and fell silent.

“Not a work conversationalist, got it. What d’you do for fun?” Castiel sipped his coffee and let his eyes linger on the other man, he wasn’t looking anyway so it didn’t matter, he reasoned.

Dean’s eyes lit up as if Castiel had asked him the most important question in the world and he grinned as he turned to face the professor. “I fix cars at Singer Salvage, don’t always get them road-worthy but the ones I do Bobby sells. And I play guitar, too,” he looked proud of himself.

“Tell me about it,” Castiel says, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, happy to let Dean babble about carburettors and frets. His face lit up with animated enthusiasm that made his green eyes sparkle and Cas listened attentively, trying to throw in occasional questions or tidbits of his own knowledge so Dean didn’t feel like he was dominating the conversation.

“And then he stepped in gum and lost his shoe down a grid trying to scrape it off!” Dean howled, slapping his hand on his knee while Castiel joined in, his face doing the  _so not cute_  crinkly thing again as they laughed at Dean’s brother Sam’s day of utter misfortune.

“Guys,” Hael said tentatively, hating to interrupt them, “we’re closing in like... fifteen minutes. Just thought I’d better let you know.”

Dean looked at his watch and his jaw dropped, it was 5:15 and he hadn’t done  _any_  of the things he’d meant to do today. “Jesus, did I talk all day? Oh man, sorry,” he said quickly, but Castiel just sniggered and waved a hand.

“I don’t care, God knows I swear, and I’m sure there are more important aspects of my life that He would find more distasteful than the occasional blasphemous curse,” he said and Dean colored a little at the implication. Castiel just smiled, his eyes twinkling with mischief as he leaned back in his chair and rested his ankle on his knee, Hael rolling her eyes behind Dean’s head as she waited for them to clear off so she could wipe their table.

“Oh my god guys can you just go flirt somewhere else so I can go home?” she said after a lingering stare.

“We’re not flirting,” Dean growled, twisting in his seat to glare at her but Castiel gave another of his easy laughs.

“Damn, and I was trying so hard too, ah well,” he chuckled, starting to gather his papers up. “Thanks for keeping me company anyway, even if I didn’t get much work done.”

Dean looked back at him, his eyes widening with surprise but Cas was already standing and slinging his satchel over his shoulder nonchalantly.

“See you next week, Dean,” he winked and walked past his new friend, bending slightly to press a gentle kiss to Hael’s cheek, “and thank you for letting us hang out all day, sister,” she giggled and flapped a hand at him.

“Go on, Castiel, see you at church,” she said, hitting him with her cloth.

Dean watched him go, absolutely  _not_  staring at where the silk back of his waistcoat gently brushed his ass, then turned to Hael. “What the fuck just happened?”

Hael made an airplane with her hand and mimed it crashing, complete with sound effects. “You crashed and burned, Dean, but don’t worry – he won’t hold it against you. He strikes out all the time,” she laughed, “just says ‘Hael, God works in-‘”

“If you say ‘mysterious ways’ so help me I will kick your ass,” Dean interrupted her with a groan.

Hael shrugged, “well that’s what he says. He figures if he just keeps putting himself out there sooner or later he’ll catch a bite. It’s kind of sweet really, Cas is such an optimist you’d think people would be falling all over him but apart from this one fling with some chick called Meg I don’t think I’ve ever known him to be attached.”

“How come?” Dean was curious now, conscious of the time but it wasn’t often he had the time – or opportunity – to talk to Hael alone.

“I don’t know, he’s a little odd. I think most people think he’s unattainable because he’s gorgeous, and those with the confidence to approach him are unnerved cause he can be a little bit... intense, and his concept of personal space is practically nonexistent and he maintains eye contact for  _way_  longer than is totally necessary... But he’s sweet and forgetful, can’t tie a tie to save his life, can tell you he loves you in more than a dozen languages and has a permanent case of sex hair.” She sighed, “I wish he’d find  _someone_  though, you know?”

“Sound like  _you’re_  crushing on him pretty hard,” Dean observed and she laughed again.

“He’s my brother you dork, now go home so I can lock up.”

 

Castiel was surprised to see Dean standing near the counter when he walked into the cafe on Monday morning. He was dressed in his usual business suit, obviously made to fit him and  _boy_  did it fit him, and he looked pretty ticked off. Cas greeted Hael like usual and, as was her Monday ritual, she fixed his tie for him. He’d chosen light brown slacks with a matching waistcoat – how many waistcoats did this man  _own_ , Dean wondered – and a pale blue shirt. He was wearing the same dark blue tie as last week, and Dean wondered how the hell he remembered that, but maybe he only owned one tie and spent all his time shopping for waistcoats...

“Hello, Dean,” Cas said with a smile, drawing him from his speculative thoughts and Dean felt his mouth go suddenly dry.

“Hey, Cas,” he replied and Cas grinned broadly.

“You remembered my name!”

“I... never forgot your name,” Dean frowned and Castiel laughed.

“No, but you’ve never used it before either,” Cas managed to pull back his amusement, though the corners of his mouth continued to twitch as he held it in.

“Oh. Hey look, what’s the deal ditching me the other day anyway? Those essays that much more interesting? You could have said if I was bothering you,” he chastised.

“Not at all, I enjoyed listening to you. You’re a very interesting person, Dean, I just didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable by hanging around after you made your feelings clear. I figured it’d be best to give you a day to get over the awkwardness and we could go back to being friends,” Castiel said seriously, the traces of laughter gone from his mouth, though not fully from his eyes.

Dean flushed and shuffled his feet then huffed in annoyance. “You idiot,” he grumbled, “I was gonna ask you out, stupid.” Castiel raised an eyebrow, looking back at him sceptically. “Seriously, I just didn’t know if you, you know, until Hael said... and, well, I don’t, you know, often, with guys...” he trailed off, going increasingly redder with each word and looking more and more flustered until Castiel cut him off with a quiet chuckle.

“You’re adorable,” he said quietly, “I’d love to go out with you, if you still want to ask.”

Dean nodded, desperately trying to cool his flaming face.

“Cas and Dean!” Hael said brightly, winking at Cas as he realised it had taken her at least three times longer to make their drinks as usual.

Dean picked up his cup quickly then, with a glance at Cas, took a sip and winced. Cas raised his to his lips and took a sip too, surprised to find it was the drink he’d ordered. Raising his eyebrow Dean went red again.

“I guess it grew on me after all,” he confessed and Cas laughed, trading drinks with him and dumping four sugars in his double-shot latte.

“Hope I do too,” he winked and pulled a little square of paper from his pocket, putting it gently into Dean’s palm and sliding his thumb smoothly across the back of his hand as he drew away. “Here’s my number, call me when you have some time,” and with one last grin he turned and sauntered out of the cafe, waving to Hael as he went, with a new spring in his step.

This time Dean definitely  _was_  checking his butt out, and didn’t even try to hide it.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if you guys guessed but I based the Castiel of this AU loosely on the 2014 Castiel, so he's a little bit of a relaxed hippy guy instead of intense and uptight. Still a little awkward, I hope, but not overly so.
> 
> Find me on Tumblr! On my [main blog](http://faeryn.tumblr.com) or my [very quiet writing sideblog.](http://faerynfics.tumblr.com)


End file.
